PICK ENGLISH WITH TICs

Hi everyone,
Did you enjoy Christmas Day? Did Santa bring you a lot of presents or just a lump of coal?
Do you usually make resolutions for New Year?
What are your new resolutions for year 2016?  What things do you want to improve?
Are you ready to push the reset button? Some ideas:

- Help other people.
- Study more.
- Tidy your bedroom.
- Recycle.
- Save money.
- Wake up earlier.
- Learn or improve your English level.

If you want to improve your English or learn a new language, then you must know this:

Do you know what the CEFR is?

It is the Common European Framewok of Reference for Languages which is an international standard for describing language ability.




These Elementary Podcasts can help you.

If you want to find more content for this level click here.

Hello everyone,
How many days left until Christmas Eve? And Christmas Day?
Santa is visiting us next week and he's checking his list.
Have you been naughty or good?

Santa is an old man who has got a long beard and a big moustache. He has got a red and white suit and brown boots. He has got a lot of presents for children in his sack.
He has got helpers called elves and a famous reindeer which guides him called Rudolph.

Year 6 student, Amanda, has drawn this pic of Santa for a friend in England and Year 4 students, Lucía and Nebdret have coloured it. Do you like this pic of Father Christmas?

This is one of my favourite song for Christmas.I hope you like it
.

Hi everyone,
Do you like the famous Christmas carol "Rudolph the red nose reindeer". Let's practise it.



We wish you Merry Christmas.
Last Christmas by Wham

Hi everyone,

Hello everyone,
Last Black Friday we bought twenty-one new books for our English library. The new books are different as they are digital books and they offer different options.
Here you are the list of  of the books.   Click here to access to the new collection of books.























- Girl on a motorcycle       Sally's phone     The little match girl      London         


- The shoemaker and the elves           The magic cooking pot      England 


- The Canterville Ghost     Robinson Crusoe    Henry VIII and his six wives  


- Hollywood          The Cat        Journey to the west      The skateboarder      
     

- Moby   Dick         The girl with green eyes       The phantom of the Opera


- Les miserables      Lownu  Mends the Sky        Zombie attack


If you want to check the list of paper books and magazines, then click here.

Some of the students are interested in reading then they want to create an English Reading Club and share opinions and experiences online about the books they read. Would you like to join us?
Our English club works from Tuesdays to Thursdays at 12.30 pm.

Hi everyone,
Last week our students made their beautiful Christmas cards for their pen pals for Epsom, Surrey, England. They wrote some greeting messages and drew some Christmas and winter pictures on the front.
Last Saturday I woke up early, then I had breakfast a cup of coffee and some toast and took some pics of most of the cards.

After that I put them in different envelopes and I went to the post office. It cost me six euros each envelope and I paid by credit card. It was a busy morning for me.

Can you find all the irregular verbs in the past form in the text above?

Now look at the pictures and revise the vocabulary students have added to the pictures.

How do you say that in English?

Hi everyone,
We celebrate Constitution Day in Spain today and Immaculate Conception on Thursday what means we have two official days off to chill out and rest this week.
Constitution Day is a national public holiday and also Immaculate Conception.

Hello everyone,
Yesterday most of you received an Advent Calendar. It was a beautiful present for the starting of December. They are a way of counting down to Christmas and they have a window to open for every day from 1st December to 24th, Crhistmas Eve.
It's time to make your list of presents for Santa and The Three Wise Men.

Here you are some questions related to Christmas you must think about.

What is the meaning of Advent? When did it began?
When does it start? What happens during advent?
To get more information click here.

Do you decorate your house?
Why do we put up a Christmas tree?
What does it represent?
What kind of tree is it?
Click here. (It's a little more difficult).





























This PEARSON Advent Calendar is very funny. You can learn new things.

Finally you can enjoy this giant calendar in Manchester.

Bye for now.

Good morning everyone,
Today is Monday 30th November. It is Saint Andrew's day, Scotland's patron saint.

The death of Saint Andrew inspired Scots flag, the Saltire, also known as St. Andrew's cross.
Saint Andrew was a fisherman who became one of the Twelve Apostles. His name means strong.
He was crucified on a X-shaped cross by Romans because they did not like Christians very much. He was first Bishop of  Greece and Romans were unhappy about that. He died horribly.

Saint Andrew was the brother of St. Peter, who founded the Catholic church.

Good afternoon,
Jacobo drew these pictures and he told us some of the activities he did last summer.
Drew, told and did are the past simple form of...?
Check this irregular verbs list if you need it.

Now look at Jacobo's work.

Good morning everyone,
Are modal verbs difficult to learn? What do they use them for?
Eva and Amanda, year 6 A students have made this card to explain it to their classmates.

You can get more information British Council Modal Verbs.

Good afternoon everyone,
Do you know what a mind map is?
Mind maps can help students feel more confident, connect different ideas, simplify and clarify more important thoughts, memorise essential information and the most important thing for young children: stress the importance of creativity.
These are some of the mind maps that Year 5 students have created and presented. They have enjoyed this activity and have learnt a lot. Do you like them?

Good morning boys and girls,
How are you? I hope you are well.
Look at this piece of work about the harvest that our pen pals have sent us. 

Hi everyone,
England host France tonight in a friendly game in London. Wembley stadium prepares an emotional show of solidarity after the terrorist atrocities in Paris. 129 people died and a lot of were injured. French President Francois Hollande said yesterday that victims were of 19 different nationalities.
Last Friday England fans started a campaign to sing the French National anthem before the kick-off.
There will also be a minute's silence and floral tribute for the victims.

The captain of England, Wayne Roonie, said:"On behalf of the players, we'd like to give our condolences. Sad times, a lot of people losing their lives. I spoke to my club team-mates after it happened and it's hard for everyone, including for ourselves, and we have to be as respectful as we can and obviously there is a football match."

Hello everyone,
Our students are very happy because their pen pals from Stamford Green Primary school in Epsom, England, have sent these presentations to us.
These presentations show us their traditional "Harvest bake off".
We must say thank you for their work and their wonderful slides.

Hello everyone,
A lot of people celebrated Halloween yesterday.

What did you do?
Did you dress up as a monster?
Did you wear a spooky costume?
Did you go trick or treat with your friends?
Did you visit a lot of homes?
Did you ask for candies door-to-door?

Today is All Saint's Day. It is always celebrated by Catholics the first day of November because it is a holy day. They normally attend Mass on this day.
Thousands of people visit the graves of their relatives in cemeteries and leave offering of flowers in Spain.














Image: wikimedia

Let's learn a little more about All Saint's Day with Daniel Climent.

Hello

Are you organising your Halloween party? This year falls on Saturday so there is no excuse.
Don't forget to create a spooky party playlist. What are your favourite scary soundtracks?
I'm sure that "Thriller" in included, then it's important to have those zombie dance moves practised.

Did you know that "Thriller" was one of Michael Jackson's first most popular songs?



Get more information:
Try to complete the lyrics. If it's easy, then move to a more difficult level. Good luck.
Learn English with songs.
Best Halloween Songs.

Hi everyone,
Do you want to sing this funny song? It's for little kids, but I'm sure you can have a lot of fun.
Listen and sing it:



Is it cool?

Happy Halloween!

Hello everybody,
Tomorrow is Halloween and a lot of people are going to celebrate it.
Have you got a costume? If not, think about what you wanna be for Halloween. Look at this picture and you can get some ideas.

Hello everybody,
Most of you love this song, Someone like you, by Adele. The song is about a boyfriend who broke up with Adele.




If you like the song then you can listen to it again and try to do this activity.

Fill the gaps: Adele Someone like you.

Hello everyone,
We have received the flags our penpals have made for us today. Students describe their flag and why they have chosen it. Here you can see some of them:

Students have read their descriptions out and have exchanged their flags with other students.
They have loved it.

Hi boys and girls,
Do you know how to surf the web safely?
The internet can be dangerous because you can find cyberbullying, pornography, sexual predators, viruses, spyware, online scams. We must use it properly, with the right precaution and the right information.

REMEMBER: It's important to take precautions and ask your parents or teachers for help if you think you need it.

Take this quiz and find out if you surf the web safely.
Use the wordreference dictionary in case you need it.

Listen to this song and learn it.




If you need more information, visit these places:
El blog de Angelucho.
Safe Internet Surfing

Hello,
Do you want to practise the cardinal numbers? Sing this song.




1. Can you find the hidden numbers?
2. Now let's play this game "Magic monkey".
3. Now do your maths and fill in the missing numbers.
4. Go shopping

This is a little more difficult. Use an online dictionary if you need it.

1. Find out interesting facts about money with this quiz.

Hello everyone,
How do you greet people? There are many ways to greet someone, some are formal and other informal. Look at students' pictures and think if they are formal or informal.

Hi everyone,
We are revising cardinal and ordinal numbers.
As you know, cardinal numbers represent amounts like five, ten, twenty.
Ordinal numbers represent a place in a serie. Every year we create folders to organise our work. We create three folders which contain these ordinal numbers: First, Second and Third.

Imagine you want to design an invitation for your birthday, can you write the date correctly?
We need to know some rules to avoid important mistakes.
There are different ways of writing the date in English.
Go to English club to get more information.

Now let's play some games.
  Ordinal number- Counting game

Cardinal and ordinal memory game

Write the ordinal number in the blank

. Days of the week.

. Months of the year.

. Expressions of time.

. Hangman

. Cardinal and ordinal numbers.

Hi everyone,
Do you know that a lot of successful people speak various languages?



Do you know more celebrities who speak more than a language?

Click Celebrities speaking languages

Click Language facts if you want to know more about languages.

Click here if you want to know more about Spanish.

Hi everyone,
Students have created these posters to celebrate the European Day of Languages (26th September)..
It's important to raise awareness of:
- Europe's rich linguistic diversity, which must be preserved and enhanced.

-The need to diversify the range of languages people learn., which results in plurilingualism.

Remember that learning other people's language is a way to understand each other better and overcome our curricular differences.
Sources: EDL
Download flyer European Day of Languages

Hi everyone,
Today is the first day of autumn. The autumn equinox usually falls 22 or 23 September but in 1931 it fell on 24 September.
The word Equinox is derived from Latin, meaning equal night, although days are still longer.
Google has created a new animated doodle on its homepage to mark the occasion. It shows a little squirrel hiding behind some autumnal squashes.

Image: The Mirror

What happens in the southern hemisphere?
What is the difference between the autumn equinox in the North and South Pole?
How do people celebrate the autumn equinox?
How is the full moon nearest the equinox often called?
When will the next lunar eclipse happen?

Click The Independent to answer these questions.

Stonehenge Autumn Equinox Celebration 2014

Druids meet at Stonehenge to greet the equinox with song and music.



If want to get more information about Stonehenge you must watch "Secrets of Stonehenge".

If you want to travel click Telegraph

Hello everyone,
The Spanish national basketball team lifted their third European trophy in the last four championships yesterday night at Lille's Pierre Mauroy stadium in France.
Spain beat Lithuania 80-63 led once again by Pau Gasol, who notched up 25 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.

Highlights Final Game

Hi everyone,
The 2015 Rugby World Cup has started today in England.
There are twenty teams competing.

Cardiiff castle looks awesome with this rugby ball crashed into it.
Image: The Mirror

Hello everybody,
Let's continue with basketball. Yesterday Spain defeated France in Eurobasket 2015. France beat Spain in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Spain last year. Yesterday Spain took revenge for that defeat.
Spain is now 6-3 against France in major tournaments over the last seven years

Spain will play the winner of today's semifinal between Serbia and Luthania, in the gold medal game on Sunday.
The Spanish team has also qualified automatically for the Olympics, which will be celebrated in Rio de Janeiro next Year.
"We came here to win the gold and now we have the opportunity to do it", Pau Gasol Said. He was the game hero. He finished with 40 points and 11 rebounds and 3 blocks.

He had a colossal performance. He also said: ""It was an incredible game, so hard-fought by both teams and an extremely difficult game to win here in France against a big team, I am very happy and proud for our team"

Here you can watch part of the post game press conference. Gasol  answers some questions (minute 22:30).

You can get more information EUROBASKETBALL 2015

Hello everyone,
Do you like sports? What is your favourite one?
Do you play tennis? If so, who is your favourite tennis player?
Do you do judo?

And what about basketball? Do you know Kevin Durant?

He is an American professional basketball player. He was born on September 29 in Washington, D.C,.
He plays for Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
He is a very generous man and he's popular for his kindness toward the community of Oklahoma.

Last year he won  the Most Valuable Player award 2014 and he gave his mum this touching and poignant tribute during the ceremony.

These are some of the words Durant said to his mum, Wanda Pratt.
"We weren't supposed to be here", "You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs. You put food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate and you went to sleep hungry. "You sacrificed for us. You're the real MVP."

"I'm just kind of emotional about this day because he just worked so hard," Pratt said. "He started working at this early, when he was 9 years old. To see it all come together for him, I'm just excited for him.

Attendees gave both Durant and his mother a standing ovation




You can get more information here.

Hello everybody,
A group of teachers and students have made this video to express gratitude to Greek contribution to European culture.
They use Greek words to refer to Medicine,  History, Music, Astronomy, Sports, Mathematics, Philosophy, Politics,...  in the touching video.
They all together say: "Thank you, Greece".

Hello everyone,
Did you listen to this piece of news yesterday? I was baffled after watching this video.
Mick Fanning, three-time world surfing champion was very lucky and he could escape when a shark attacked him in South Africa.

Here you can watch Mick Fanning shark attack.

Hello everyone,
Malala Yousafzai celebrated her birthday yesterday. She was born in Pakistan,  12 July in 1997. Then she's 18 years old now. Happy birthday Malala.

This is what she said to BBC yesterday: "I promised to help people". She's a brave girl.



She is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.

Do you want know more about her? Read this comic about Malala's life.